Personality and Social Contexts Commons^™

Presidential Decision Making: Comparing The Personality Profiles Of Barack Obama And Franklin D. Roosevelt, Andrew Obritsch, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of indirect assessments of the personalities of U.S. presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Barack H. Obama, from the conceptual perspective of personologist Theodore Millon. Information concerning Roosevelt and Obama was collected from biographical sources and published reports and synthesized into personality profiles using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM-IV.

The personality profiles yielded by the MIDC were analyzed on the basis of interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC manual. Roosevelt’s primary personality pattern was found …

Correlation Between Facebook Usage And Loneliness And Depression, Jasmine (Chi Man) Tang, Michael Livingston

Psychology Faculty Publications

Facebook has emerged into our society within the last couple years as a powerful social phenomenon. 11.5% of the world population are active users of Facebook while there is a serious lack of psychological theory relating to functions or effects of Facebook. Researchers began realizing the importance of investigating the usage of Facebook and how that might be related to different personality traits. However, not much research has been done on how Facebook use could be related to our social well-beings.

The current study aims to investigate how the use of Facebook influences loneliness and depression. The results showed that …

Psychological Functioning In Adulthood: A Self-Efficacy Analysis, Daniele Artistico, Jane M. Berry, Justin Black, Dan Cervone, Courtney Lee, Heather Orom

Psychology Faculty Publications

In the first edition of this handbook, we laid the foundation for a self-efficacy approach to understanding learning in adulthood. We examined self-efficacy applications to learning in adulthood from two broad-based theoretical perspectives: KAPA (knowledge and appraisal personality architecture; Cervone, 2004a) and SOC (selective optimization with compensation, Baltes, Lindenberger, & Staudinger, 2006). Both perspectives emphasize the dynamic interplay between dispositional, motivational, situational, and developmental contexts for successful functioning and adaptation in life. In this edition, we build upon earlier claims with new evidence regarding the central role of self-efficacy to adult development, aging, and well-being in memory, health, work, and …

The Political Personality Of U.S. President Barack Obama, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of U.S. president Barack Obama, from the conceptual perspective of personologist Theodore Millon.

Information concerning Obama was collected from biographical sources and media reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM–IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on the basis of interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC and Millon Index of Personality Styles manuals. Obama’s primary personality patterns were found to be Ambitious/confident …

To Tell, Or Not To Tell, About Your Ocd?, Christina J. Taylor

Psychology Faculty Publications

Deciding to tell people about your OCD requires careful thought. You need to think through the costs and benefits. You must take into account all aspects of the situation. You must consider the person, the setting, other people, and the other people’s relationships with one another. Be deliberative and patient in weighing all these factors.

Memory Aging: Deficits, Beliefs, And Interventions, Jane M. Berry, Erin Hastings, Robin West, Courtney Lee, John C. Cavanaugh

Psychology Faculty Publications

Of all mental faculties, memory is unique. It defines who we are and places our lives on a narrative continuum from birth to death. It helps to structure our days, it guides our daily tasks and goals, and it provides pleasurable interludes as we anticipate the future and recall the past. As a core, defining feature of the self (Birren & Schroots, 2006), memory takes on heightened meaning as we age. In the face of other losses that accumulate with age, memory can serve to preserve our sense of self and place in time. In normal aging, memory loss is …

The Political Personality Of 2008 Republican Presidential Nominee John Mccain, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of Arizona senator John McCain, Republican nominee in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, from the conceptual perspective of personologist Theodore Millon.

Psychodiagnostically relevant data regarding Sen. McCain was extracted from biographical sources and published reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM–IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed in accordance with interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC manual. McCain’s …

The Political Personality Of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Aubrey Immelman, Pascal De Sutter

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of French president Nicolas Sarkozy. The study was conducted from the conceptual perspective of Theodore Millon’s model of personality.

Information concerning Sarkozy was collected from biographical sources and media reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM–IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on the basis of interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC and Millon Index of Personality Styles …

The Political Personality Of 2007 French Presidential Candidate Ségolène Royal, Aubrey Immelman, Pascal De Sutter

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of Ségolène Royal, candidate of the Socialist Party in the 2007 French presidential election.

The study was conducted from the conceptual perspective of Theodore Millon’s model of personality. Information concerning Royal was collected from biographical sources and media reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM–IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on the basis of interpretive guidelines provided …

Love-Variant: The Wakin-Vo I. D. R. Model Of Limerence, Albert H. Wakin, Duyen B. Vo

Psychology Faculty Publications

The purpose of the current paper is to 1) propose the Wakin-Vo I.D.R model of limerence and 2) establish grounds for the scientific query of limerence. Limerence is an involuntary interpersonal state that involves intrusive, obsessive, and compulsive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are contingent on perceived emotional reciprocation from the object of interest. The model that the authors propose holds that although limerence resembles normative love, it is a state that is necessarily negative, problematic, and impairing, with clinical implications. The model frames limerence as consisting of three functional components: initiating force, driving forces, and resultant forces. Parallels between …

The Political Personalities Of 2008 Republican Presidential Contenders John Mccain And Rudy Giuliani, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of indirect assessments of the personalities of Arizona senator John McCain and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, contenders for the Republican Party nomination in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, from the conceptual perspective of personologist Theodore Millon.

Information concerning Sen. McCain and Mayor Giuliani was collected from biographical sources and published reports and synthesized into personality profiles using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM–IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on …

Key Leadership Roles In The 9/11 Terrorist Attack, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

Personality assessment of three al-Qaida leaders in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States – Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Mohamed Atta – provides evidence for a rudimentary model of the leadership roles required for a global-reach terrorist operation: (1) a narcissistic, charismatic leader devoid of core values beyond personal self-interest, adept at exploiting others in pursuit of his grandiose ambitions (e.g., bin Laden); (2) a strategic-thinking “true believer” without constraints of conscience regarding the level of violence he is willing to employ in his single-minded pursuit of mission (e.g., al-Zawahiri); and (3) unobtrusive, disciplined operatives …

The Political Personality Of 2004 Democratic Presidential Candidate John Kerry, Aubrey Immelman, Adam Beatty

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of Sen. John Kerry, Democratic Party nominee in the 2004 U.S. presidential election, from the conceptual perspective of Theodore Millon.

Psychodiagnostically relevant information regarding Sen. Kerry was extracted from biographical sources and media reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM–IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on the basis of interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC and Millon …

Political Psychology And Personality, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

Following a brief overview of historical approaches to personality-in-politics inquiry, this book chapter reviews the current state of the field – specifically, psychodynamic approaches, trait/motivational perspectives, and cognitive models – and argues that Theodore Millon’s personological model offers an integrative framework for assessing personality in politics and building a conceptual bridge between personality patterns and political leadership styles.

Millon’s model accounts for structural and functional personality attributes at the behavioral, phenomenological, intrapsychic, and biophysical levels of analysis and provides a theoretically coherent framework for studying personality in politics consonant with established principles in the adjacent sciences and integrative with respect …

The Information Used To Judge Supportiveness Depends On Whether The Judgment Reflects The Personality Of Perceivers, Objective Characteristics Of Targets Or Their Unique Relationships, Brian Lakey, Catherine Lutz, Alan Scoboria

Psychology Faculty Publications

People who judge their relationships as more supportive enjoy better mental health than people who judge their relationships more negatively. We investigated how people made these judgments; specifically, how people weighed different types of information about targets under three different conditions: when judgments reflected the personality of perceivers, the objective characteristics of targets, and the unique relationships between perceivers and targets. Participants (i.e., perceivers) judged the same four videotaped targets on personality, similarity to perceivers and likely supportiveness. As in previous research, perceivers based their judgments on perceived target similarity to perceivers, and on target personality. However, how perceivers weighed …

Psychopathy And The Five Factor Model In A Noninstitutionalized Sample: A Domain And Facet Level Analysis, Scott R. Ross, Catherine J. Lutz, Steven E. Bailley

Psychology Faculty Publications

The current study examined the relationship of the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality to primary and secondary psychopathic dispositions in a noninstitutionalized sample. Previous investigations suggest that Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism are basic personality traits that characterize psychopathy. However, few studies have examined the relationship of the FFM to primary and secondary psychopathic attributes, respectively. In the current study, the relationship of the FFM using the NEO-PI-R to primary and secondary psychopathic dispositions was investigated in a sample of young adults. Previous findings were extended by (1) addressing the relationship of higher and lower order FFM traits (i.e., facet …

The Personality Of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Aubrey Immelman, Jamie Thielman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of U.S. Supreme Court associate justice Clarence Thomas, from the conceptual perspective of Theodore Millon.

Information concerning Justice Thomas was collected from biographical sources, speeches, and published reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM-IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on the basis of interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC and Millon Index of Personality Styles manuals. Justice …

The Political Personality Of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Aubrey Immelman, Adam Beatty

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, from the conceptual perspective of Theodore Millon.

Psychodiagnostically relevant information regarding President Mugabe was extracted from biographical sources and media reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM–IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on the basis of interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC and Millon Index of Personality Styles manuals.

Mugabe’s primary personality …

“Bin Laden’S Brain”: The Abrasively Negativistic Personality Of Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Aubrey Immelman, Kathryn Kuhlmann

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy leader of the al-Qaida terrorist network at the time of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States and allegedly chief strategist for al-Qaida operations and personal physician to Osama bin Laden.

Al-Zawahiri’s primary personality patterns were found to be Contentious/oppositional and Dominant/controlling, with secondary features of the Dauntless/dissenting and Ambitious/self-serving patterns.

The amalgam of Contentious (negativistic, or passive-aggressive) and Dominant (aggressive, or sadistic) patterns in al-Zawahiri’s profile suggests the presence of the “abrasive negativist” syndrome. For these personalities, minor frictions easily …

A Research Agenda For Political Personality And Leadership Studies: An Evolutionary Proposal, Aubrey Immelman, Theodore Millon

Psychology Faculty Publications

Despite major neuroscientific advances in the past two decades and parallel conceptual refinement in evolutionary theory, personality-in-politics inquiry remains adrift, divorced from these broader spheres of scientific knowledge. This paper reviews the neurobiological substrates of three major domains of evolutionary biology and behavioral ecology relevant to political personality assessment and the psychological examination of political leaders; furnishes a context and set of guiding ideas to revitalize the study of the person as biopsychosocial entity in politics; advances a generative theory of personality and political leadership performance; and proposes an agenda for advancing personality-in-politics and leadership inquiry, informed by insights derived …

Personality In Political Psychology, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This chapter outlines the history of personality inquiry in political psychology, examines the current state of personality assessment in politics, and charts a course for the study of personality in politics in the post-cognitive revolution era, informed by contextually adjacent scientific fields such as behavioral neuroscience and evolutionary ecology.

The chapter offers a comprehensive, generative, theoretically coherent framework for studying personality in politics, consonant with established principles in the adjacent sciences and integrative with respect to accommodating a diversity of politically relevant personal characteristics. The proposed framework attempts to bridge conceptual and methodological gaps between current formulations in the source …

The Personality Profile Of Al-Qaida Leader Osama Bin Laden, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of Osama bin Laden, founder and leader of the al-Qaida terrorist network responsible for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States.

Bin Laden’s primary personality patterns were found to be Ambitious/exploitative and Dauntless/dissenting, with a secondary Distrusting/suspicious orientation, and subsidiary Dominant/controlling and Conscientious/dutiful features.

Ambitious individuals are bold, competitive, and self-assured; they easily assume leadership roles, expect others to recognize their special qualities, and often act as though entitled. Dauntless individuals are bold, courageous, and tough; minimally constrained by the norms of society; routinely engage …

The Personality Profile Of September 11 Hijack Ringleader Mohamed Atta, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of a posthumous, indirect assessment of the personality of Mohamed Atta, apparent ringleader in the September 11, 2001 terror attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, from the conceptual perspective of Theodore Millon.

Information concerning Mohamed Atta was collected from media reports in the one-month period following the attack and synthesized into a personality profile using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM-IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on the …

The Political Personality Of U.S. President George W. Bush, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of U.S. president George W. Bush, conducted 1998–2000 from the conceptual perspective of personologist Theodore Millon.

Psychodiagnostically relevant data regarding Bush was extracted from biographical sources and media reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM–IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed in accordance with interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC and Millon Index of Personality Styles manuals. Bush was found to be …

The Character Of Hillary Clinton, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This essay documents some of the enduring personal characteristics that provide an empirical basis for assessing Hillary Rodham Clinton’s dominant, ambitious personality pattern from a psychobiographical, psychohistorical perspective.

Portrait Of George W. Bush As A “Late Bloomer”, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This essay documents some of the enduring personal characteristics that provide an empirical basis for assessing George W. Bush’s outgoing, adventurous personality pattern.

The Political Personalities Of 2000 U.S. Presidential Candidates George W. Bush And Al Gore, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of indirect psychodiagnostic assessments of the political personalities of Texas governor George W. Bush and U.S. vice president Al Gore, putative Republican and Democratic nominees in the U.S. presidential election of 2000, from the conceptual perspective of Theodore Millon.

Information concerning George W. Bush and Al Gore was collected from published biographical and autobiographical accounts and political reports in the print media, and synthesized into personality profiles using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM–IV.

The …

Why Al Gore Will Not Be Elected President In 2000, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This article highlights the key role of extraversion with reference to electoral success in U.S. presidential elections since the advent of television and argues that the introverted Al Gore will therefore not be elected president in 2000. Starting with Franklin D. Roosevelt, nearly every U.S. president has been extraverted relative to other U.S. presidents, except for Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter. Moreover, since the first televised presidential debate (between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon) in 1960, the more outgoing candidate has consistently won the election, with the exception of Nixon in 1968 and 1972.

The Political Personality Of U.S. Vice President Al Gore, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect psychodiagnostic assessment of the political personality of U.S. vice president Al Gore, Democratic nominee in the 2000 presidential election, from the conceptual perspective of Theodore Millon.

Information concerning Al Gore was collected from published biographical and autobiographical accounts and political reports in the print media, and synthesized into personality profiles using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM-IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on the basis of interpretive guidelines …

The Clinton Chronicle: Diary Of A Political Psychologist, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

Chronicle, from the perspective of political psychology, of events and controversies in the impeachment saga of President Bill Clinton, from the president’s August 17, 1998 testimony before the grand jury in the Starr investigation to his acquittal on February 12, 1999.